Communications device, infrastructure equipment, wireless telecommunications system and methods

Abstract

A communications device comprising circuitry configured to receive an indication of an allocation of physical resources of a wireless access interface providing plurality of different physical channels of different types, each of the different types of physical channels being defined for transmitting messages in accordance with a different priority level using a contentious access technique. The circuitry configured to identify a relative priority for transmitting one or more messages, select one of the physical channels in accordance with the identified relative priority, and transmit the message via the select physical channel.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A communications device for transmitting a message to an infrastructure equipment of a mobile communications network, the communications device comprising
 a transmitter configured to transmit signals via a wireless access interface provided by the infrastructure equipment, 
 a receiver configured to receive signals from the infrastructure equipment via the wireless access interface, and 
 circuitry configured to control the transmitter and the receiver to transmit and/or receive the signals, the circuitry being configured to 
 receive an indication of an allocation of physical resources of the wireless access interface providing a plurality of different physical channels of different types, each of the different types of physical channels being defined for transmitting messages in accordance with a different priority level using a contentious access technique, the allocation of the physical resources being dependent upon the priority of the message and the contentious access technique, 
 identify a relative priority for transmitting one or more of the messages to the infrastructure equipment, wherein the messages are allocated to separate contention pools, wherein a size of a contention pool is based on an amount of physical resources and physical channels allocated, wherein the size of the contention pool to which the messages are allocated is based on the relative priority level of the message so that an access probability is proportional to the priority of the message to be transmitted, 
 select one of the physical channels in accordance with the identified relative priority, wherein one or more applications running on the communications device, from which the one or more messages are received, provide an indication of the relative priority level of each of the messages to be transmitted, and 
 transmit the message via the select physical channel, wherein the message is transmitted via the selected physical channel in accordance with the contentious access technique determined for the selected physical channel provided by the received indication, 
 wherein each message is generated by a plurality of separate hardware components in the communications device, wherein each of the plurality of separate hardware components is associated with different priority levels such that each of the plurality of separate hardware components only generates messages having priority levels corresponding to that hardware component, 
 wherein the priority level of each message includes a first priority level of the message based on the message type and a second priority level in addition to the first priority level, wherein the second priority level is different for messages of the same type based on a criticality of a traffic situation, 
 wherein in order to reduce a probability of collision when transmitting a plurality of messages, an initial message is transmitted across the entire network and remaining messages are only transmitted within a given range or area in which the communications device is situated. 
 
     
     
       2. The communications device of  claim 1 , wherein the allocation of the physical resources for one or more of the physical channels is changed after receiving a further indication, so the physical resources for the one or more physical channels are dynamically scheduled. 
     
     
       3. The communications device of  claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to
 transmit a plurality of messages via a selected one of the physical channels and a first transmitted message also includes an indication of a periodicity of the plurality of messages to be transmitted. 
 
     
     
       4. The communications device of  claim 3 , wherein the contentious access technique to be used via the selected physical channel includes semi-persistent allocation of the physical resources depending on the periodicity of the messages to be transmitted. 
     
     
       5. The communications device of  claim 4 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to
 transmit a release request message via the selected physical channel, wherein the release request message indicates that the allocated physical resources are no longer required. 
 
     
     
       6. The communications device of  claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to determine a location of the communications device. 
     
     
       7. The communications device of  claim 6 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to transmit via the wireless access interface an indication of the determined location of the communications device, and the indication of the physical channel is received in response to the transmitted indication of the determined location, and to transmit the message via the selected physical channel provided in response to the location indication, the allocation of the physical resources for the selected physical channel being dependent upon the determined location of the communications device. 
     
     
       8. The communications device of  claim 6 , wherein the allocation of the physical resources comprising allocating physical resources to one or more geographical areas, and wherein the controller is configured to select one of the physical channels based on which one of the one or more geographical areas the determined location of the communications device is contained within. 
     
     
       9. The communications device of  claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to transmit the message via a default physical channel when the controller detects that the communications device has not received the indication of the allocation of physical resources of the wireless access interface. 
     
     
       10. The communications device of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of separate hardware components includes a subset of the plurality of the separate hardware components, each of the subset being associated with a different priority level of message within the same message type. 
     
     
       11. Infrastructure equipment for use with a mobile communications network, the infrastructure equipment comprising:
 a transmitter configured to transmit signals to one or more communications devices via a wireless access interface, 
 a receiver configured to receive signals from the one or more communications devices via the wireless access interface, and 
 circuitry configured to control the transmitter and the receiver to transmit and/or receive the signals, the circuitry being configured to 
 determine an allocation of physical resources of the wireless access interface providing a plurality of different physical channels of different types, each of the different types of physical channels being defined for transmitting messages in accordance with a different priority level using a contentious access technique, the allocation of the physical resources being dependent upon the priority of the message and the contentious access technique, wherein one or more applications running on the one or more communications devices, from which the messages are received, provide an indication of the priority level of each of the messages to be transmitted, and 
 transmit an indication of the determined allocation of physical resources of the wireless access interface to the one or more communications devices via the wireless access interface, wherein the messages are allocated to separate contention pools, wherein a size of a contention pool is based on an amount of physical resources and physical channels allocated, wherein the size of the contention pool to which the messages are allocated is based on the relative priority level of the message so that an access probability is proportional to the priority of the message to be transmitted, 
 wherein each message received from the communications device is generated by one of a plurality of separate hardware components in the communications device, wherein each of the plurality of separate hardware components is associated with different priority levels such that each of the plurality of separate hardware components only generates messages having priority levels corresponding to that hardware component, 
 wherein the priority level of each message includes a first priority level of the message based on the message type and a second priority level in addition to the first priority level, wherein the second priority level is different for messages of the same type based on a criticality of a traffic situation, 
 wherein in order to reduce a probability of collision when transmitting a plurality of messages, an initial message is transmitted across the entire network and remaining messages are only transmitted within a given range or area in which the communications device is situated. 
 
     
     
       12. The infrastructure equipment of  claim 11 , wherein the allocation of the physical resources for one or more of the physical channels is changed after a period of time, so the physical resources for the one or more physical channels are dynamically scheduled. 
     
     
       13. The infrastructure equipment of  claim 11 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to receive a plurality of messages from one of more of the communications devices via a selected one of the physical channels and a first of the received messages includes an indication of the periodicity of the plurality of messages to be received. 
     
     
       14. The infrastructure equipment of  claim 13 , wherein the contentious access technique to be used via the selected physical channel includes semi-persistent allocation of physical resources depending on the periodicity of the messages to be received. 
     
     
       15. The infrastructure equipment of  claim 14 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to receive a release request message from one or more of the communications devices, and release the physical resources of the channel allocated for the plurality of messages by re-allocating the physical resources of the wireless access interface to other communications devices. 
     
     
       16. The infrastructure equipment of  claim 11 , wherein the circuitry is further configured with the receiver to receive from one or more of the communications devices an indication of a location of each of the communications devices. 
     
     
       17. The infrastructure equipment of  claim 16 , wherein the allocation of the physical resources is dependent upon the determined location of each of the one or more communications devices. 
     
     
       18. The infrastructure equipment of  claim 16 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to determine a number of communications devices within a given area based upon the determined location of each of the one or more communications devices, and wherein the allocation of the physical resources is dependent upon the determined number of communications devices within the given area. 
     
     
       19. A method of controlling a communications device for transmitting a message to an infrastructure equipment of a mobile communications network, the method comprising:
 controlling the receiver to receive from the infrastructure equipment via a wireless access interface provided by the infrastructure equipment, an indication of an allocation of physical resources of the wireless access interface providing plurality of different physical channels of different types, each of the different types of physical channels being defined for transmitting messages in accordance with a different priority level using a contentious access technique, the allocation of the physical resources being dependent upon the priority of the message and the contentious access technique, 
 identifying a relative priority for transmitting one or more of the messages to the infrastructure equipment, wherein the messages are allocated to separate contention pools, wherein a size of a contention pool is based on an amount of physical resources and physical channels allocated, wherein the size of the contention pool to which the messages are allocated is based on the relative priority level of the message so that an access probability is proportional to the priority of the message to be transmitted, 
 selecting one of the physical channels in accordance with the identified relative priority, wherein one or more applications running on the communications device, from which the one or more messages are received, provide an indication of the priority level of each of the messages to be transmitted, and 
 controlling a transmitter to transmit the message via the select physical channel, wherein the message is transmitted via the selected physical channel in accordance with the contentious access technique determined for the selected physical channel provided by the received indication, 
 wherein each message is generated by a plurality of separate hardware components in the communications device, wherein each of the plurality of separate hardware components is associated with different priority levels such that each of the plurality of separate hardware components only generates messages having priority levels corresponding to that hardware component, 
 wherein the priority level of each message includes a first priority level of the message based on the message type and a second priority level in addition to the first priority level, wherein the second priority level is different for messages of the same type based on a criticality of a traffic situation, 
 wherein in order to reduce a probability of collision when transmitting a plurality of messages, an initial message is transmitted across the entire network and remaining messages are only transmitted within a given range or area in which the communications device is situated.